1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a protective member for laminating a print formed by recording an image on paper and the like by a recording process employing a recording liquid, especially an ink jet recording process, and the present invention also relates to a method for protecting the print.
2. Description of the Related Art
The ink jet recording process conducts recording by ejecting droplets of a recording liquid through an orifice on a recording head and depositing these droplets on recording medium such as paper. This recording method is drawing much attention since it produces less noise, requires no particular fixing process and enables high-speed and full-color recording.
The recording liquid used in this ink jet recording method generally comprises a recording agent such as a dye and a solvent. The solvent may be either water or a mixed solvent of water and other solvents.
Since the ink jet recording method uses an aqueous recording liquid, the recording media are required to have an excellent ability for absorption and fixing of a recording liquid. In multi-color ink jet recording which uses more than two colors of recording liquids, the absorption and fixing qualities are important because of the increased amount of recording liquids depositing on the recording media.
Recording media excellent in these qualities are produced by forming on the substrate such as paper a receiving layer for recording liquids which is constituted of a porous material having good absorption and fixing qualities.
However, in prints produced by the ink jet recording method, recorded images do not always have adequate resistance to water, solvents, abrasion, etc. because aqueous dyes are mainly used as recording agents. Furthermore, most dyes used as a recording liquid ingredient do not have a satisfactory resistance to continuous or intermittent prolonged light exposure, so that images formed from such dyes are subject to discoloring and fading.
Aqueous recording liquids also contain a less volatile ingredient, and drying and fixing of recorded images require some time.
Meanwhile, in a recording medium with a porous receiving layer for a recording liquid, the surface of recording medium lacks glossiness, and even when an image is recorded sharply, the sharpness as observed visually will be impaired. This disadvantage was one of the major problems that must be solved when multi-color images are recorded for producing color prints by the ink jet recording method.